Eating outside...

People here say, you must go abroad to see the world, but you can taste a lot from the world in shanghai. I eat out regularly, but pay attention not to take too much of the oily food. In the current time of economy storm, bookings at restaurants are much less. A lot of orders from entities have been withdrawn before the festival. The family gettogethers are still busy, though. But the restaurants take care to adjust their menu to meet the requirements of frugality from most of the customers.

Well, for us it is more or less the same. Mind you we didn't eat out that often to start with. We all like to cook in our home so even if one doesn't really fell like cooking one of the other will. It really depends with us, we might eat out one day every week, one day every month or go months without eating out. keeping in pace with the tougher economical times, might or not be the reason why the last time we ate out was in November when my mom left, but the reason is more likely to be because we have been busy and when we are home we prefer to stay home and relax. I usually take food to work, not just because it's more economical but because this way I do eat what I actually like. Although sometimes I go to the supermarket nearby and by some fruit or yogurts. This does not mean that we are saving oodles of money because we do spend quite a lot on groceries. We don't compromise on food quality and we buy good quality meats, fish, vegetables and fruit. We do save in a way because none of us is very fond of empty stuff like pop, chips, etc.

we used to at least order a pizza once a month..but on average we got fast food at least twice a month, if for lunch if nothing else. but for about 5 months now we've eaten out exactly twice..and one of those was a delivered pizza lol! we have also cut down on the number snack items we buy..and are buying more things in bulk to freeze for later use.

We started preparing for tough times a while ago, ok, so we started putting money away ages ago without knowing a recession was going to sneak up on us. Our spending is the same as it always has been, and we just payed $7000 for a car that we have been saving for over the last year. If people were smart with their money from the start, then they wouldn't have to worry about upsetting their lifestyle too much. Just $5 a week is $260 a year that could be saved, and I don't know of many people who couldn't put that away each week. Of course, they can dip into it for bills etc, but the effort is worth the sacrifices. We are a large family with niether my partner or I working, and we are able to save about $100 a week. Our government is very good towards supporting families financially, which makes life easier for Australian families. It must be tough in other countries where the taxes parents pay are being funneled sideways into things that doesn't benefit the citizens of the country. Best not get me started on that! lol.

We used to eat out almost everyday, as I would arrive home rather late, sometimes too tired to cook. Ever since prices started going up, we have reduced that to two days a week. Cooking at home really cuts down the cost of meals, and I suppose healthier as well. However, I can't give up my snacks and munches - that takes more time to stop!

We have never really eaten out very much just to save money. Now with the recession, it is even less. Only if someone else is paying or if we have a coupon! We are not even ordering pizza delivery anymore. Cooking at home saves money and is usually healthier!